On Media

Maureen Dowd goes to pot

By DYLAN BYERS

06/04/2014 08:41 AM EDT

So Maureen Dowd got really high in Denver.

"I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop," the New York Times columnist writes in today's column. "What could go wrong with a bite or two? Everything, as it turned out."

In short, Dowd ate too much, endured eight hours of very unmellow paranoia — learning the hard way that eating pot is different than smoking pot — then talked to some industry types about the need for better warning labels. Needless to say, the column's raison d'être is its set-up, not its conclusion. The takeaway is that Maureen Dowd got lifted.

Speaking of David Brooks, you'll remember he too wrote about his experiences with marijuana back in January. Brooks enjoyed getting stoned in high school, he wrote, but has since concluded that the activity "should be discouraged more than encouraged." Too much intake "seemed likely to cumulatively fragment a person’s deep center, or at least not do much to enhance it." Not an unfair argument. The overwhelming reaction was, nevertheless, David Brooks got lifted.

Maybe Times writers are plagued from the get-go on that subject, because despite all its implications for health, crime, the economy, etc., marijuana is inherently goofy. People can't help but chuckle (or shudder) when the high-minded get high. It's like someone's parents showing up to the party and doing a keg stand.

"Funny, 'I felt a scary shudder go through my body' is exactly what happened to me when I started Dowd's column," wrote Alex Koppelman, an editor at The Guardian.

I'm beginning to think all Times columnists should take a turn in Denver, if only for the sake of balance. I'd love to see what Krugman comes up with.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misattributed Pete Wells' tweet to Times columnist Frank Bruni.